Snarling Tiger snatches iconic actor William Hurt

Most of a certain age have the Sleeping Lion brand of prostate cancer

(Scene from “Body Heat.”)

By Howard Wolinsky, The Active Surveillor

Last week, my wife Judi and I just happened to watch a favorite of ours, “Body Heat.”

It’s a taut tale about sex, larceny, arson, and murder shot in an overheated Florida, our old stomping grounds.

It features a favorite actor, William Hurt, who spoke every line as if it were poetry. He was an icon for our Baby Boom generation. He described himself as a character actor in a leading man’s body.

In “Body Heat,” Hurt (Ned Racine), dripping in sweat, danger and craziness in a sweltering season of arson near West Palm Beach, did an amazing job as a hapless lawyer. And Kathleen Turner sizzled as “Matty Walker” as she plays a (spoiler alert) husband-killer who aimed to bury all the evidence of the plot.

“The Big Chill” was another our favorites in which Hurt shined. The group of young Boomers gathered for the funeral of their friend. They seemed immortal—until this first death in their circle.

So it became a bit of a shock to hear Sunday that Hurt had died. It seemed like we are living a scene in “The Big Chill” Part 2.

Initially, Hurt’s family said he had died of “natural causes.” He was 71.

But in fact, they were putting a spin on it. He had died from prostate cancer, that SOB cancer that has been on the rise.

A friend wrote me that she had heard Hurt had died and she immediately thought of me ...  and prayed.

The kind words and prayers always are appreciated.

But I explained to her my cancer—most likely—is different from Hurt’s.

I told her PCa can be lumped into two broad groups (there really are many types of this cancer):

The Sleeping Lion and the Snarling Tiger.

(Sounds like a Bruce Lee movie—I have considered it as a title for my planned book on active surveillance.) 

Most of you who read TheActiveSurveillor.com have the former, like I do, the Sleeping Lion. 

My urologist has told me repeatedly I have a “lame” cancer, a lazy type,Gleason 6 in a single core that has only been seen once in a single biopsy in 2010 and never seen again in a total of six biopsies.

In fact, doctors debate whether this “cancer” is really a cancer.

(Breaking news: I learned last week that an article on this topic I co-wrote with some leading experts on prostate cancer will be published soon in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. I’ve written for medical journals as a journalist but never before a scientific paper.)

I told my Facebook friend that William Hurt had the Snarling Tiger.

I  wrote: “I have only been diagnosed with the Sleeping Lion that is never supposed to metastasize, the kind you live with but don't die from.” 

The American Cancer Society estimates 268,490 new cases of prostate cancer will be found in 2022—shockingly up about 20,000 from 2021.

About half or more will have low-risk cancer to favorable intermediate-risk prostate. 

These men typically will have a Sleeping Lion, and most will be able to live with their cancers and die from something else, most likely heart disease.

Hurt’s son later said his father had died from complications of prostate cancer.

In 2018, Hurt told a press conference in Berkeley that he had undergone a controversial type of chemo, known as Side Effect Free chemotherapy.

“It’s a moment you only know when it happens to you,” said Hurt, whose prostate cancer had spread to the bone.

“I didn’t want to hear the word chemo out of your mouth. I had fought tooth and nail for five years to change my life so that word didn’t happen to me,” said Hurt. “Here it was, and I was really upset.

The treatment was not well documented in the scientific literature, WINK News reported.

So now the Snarling Tiger has snatched another victim, William Hurt, an icon for our generation. He is not alone The actor is another notch in the prostate cancer death toll in 2022, when an estimated 34,500 men will die from prostate cancer.

If you pray, please pray for them and their families. It’s a horrible loss.

But realize, if you have the Sleeping Lion, the Snarling Tiger likely won’t get you.